The prior art approach to produce signal multiplication has been to apply a signal of a given frequency to a comb generator and select one frequency component from the comb generated signal using a mechanical cavity or some type of electronic filter. Generally, the filter or cavities needed to be specifically designed for a given frequency and thus, they not only used a large amount of chip or circuit board area but they were additionally not readily modifiable for use in selecting other frequencies.
The present invention obtains or provides the filtering action by using a dielectric resonator to couple a given frequency from one transmission line to the other in connection with the application of the comb of frequencies to one of the two coupled transmission lines. The natural or resonant frequency of the resonator determines the frequency of the signal to be output from the second transmission line. The efficiency of the circuit can be maximized by adjusting the distance of the resonator from the beginning of the transmission line such that the energy of a majority of the frequency components are returned to the comb generator source in a manner such that more components of the desired frequency are generated. The maximum output can be further adjusted by selecting or modifying the distance between the resonator element and the transmission lines so as to affect the coupling.
To obtain a multiplier having a different frequency multiplication, the only alteration that needs to be made is to select a dielectric resonator having a different natural frequency.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a simple, space efficient signal frequency multiplier wherein the value of frequency multiplication can easily be altered for other applications.